Author Topic: Email spam-how to stop it  (Read 1664 times)

Roadrunner53

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Email spam-how to stop it
« on: December 05, 2019, 08:05:16 AM »
I must have gone to some website and now am getting bombarded with junk mail. It does go to my junk mail folder but occasionally I get 'real' mail in my junk mail folder.

One of the serial junk mails starts with: support@ then letters and numbers then ends with .de
Another ends with -aff.com

I believe the .de is from Germany.

I have tried to set up rules in my outlook account to eliminate junk mail with the words support@, .de, aff.com. It does not stop these email from coming. I highlight and manually block them every day to no avail. I get probably 400 a day. It is driving me nuts!

Does anyone have  a solution to stop these JERKS?

I did buy something on line from Australia. These people may have sold my email address. I have no idea.

Khaetra

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Re: Email spam-how to stop it
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2019, 09:02:12 AM »
Besides the filters you already set, check the dates.  I have started receiving a crapton of junk mail dated 1983, 1988, etc.  I had to set my filters to catch these too.

As far as stopping them I have no idea.  Maybe set up a junk account and have those types sent to it?  I feel ya, spammers suck.

Valhalla

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Re: Email spam-how to stop it
« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2019, 11:51:49 AM »
The only effective way to stop spam is to switch to Gmail.

I have an outlook (formerly hotmail) account that is bombarded with spam. The most obvious, blatant, dumb spam you can think of.  Microsoft seems to be incapable or doesn't care about this spam at all.  I've given up on Microsoft to give decent spam protection for their free email accounts.

Gmail is by far the industry leader in blocking spam.  I would switch 100% to Gmail but I keep my old outlook account around for use because of its built in history. But it's inexcusable how bad Microsoft is on spam for its consumer email services.

neo von retorch

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Re: Email spam-how to stop it
« Reply #3 on: December 05, 2019, 12:07:35 PM »
I don't know how to stop the bleeding once your email is out in the wild. Here are some approaches I've taken, and some you might be able to take.

Beginner:
Use Gmail; they have pretty good algorithms for detecting spam. Additionally, use a unique email with the + sign. For example, roadrunner53+mrmoneymustache.com@gmail.com is a valid email address. When you start getting spam sent there, you can easily filter it and you know where it was compromised. The only drawback is that some stubborn companies go out of their way to prevent you from using this technique, and really clever spammers might adapt and drop the +... part of the email anyway.

Advanced:
Get your own custom domain and adapt the above strategy to a higher degree. There are a variety of options out there, but I picked this link off the top of my search results:
https://digital.com/blog/create-email-using-gmail/
You set it up so that you have a single "catch all" account that gets all emails sent to that domain name.

My own technique was the above; I got Google Apps for Business back when they had a free tier; now it's GSuite and you'll have to pay if you go this route. I still pay ~$12/year for my domain name. I use a new BusinessDomain.com@MyDomain.com email for every single account I create. I can tell what accounts have been compromised (or if my email was sold) and can easily filter or block emails that start to get spam. (I actually create "honey pot" email accounts in GSuite and add bad aliases to them so that they go into a black hole.)

Still, sometimes someone puts my personal email into some online web site like a quiz or something, and it ends up getting little dribbles of spam. But Google's system usually detects these, and it's a lot less painful than if that same email was used everywhere.

Bonus: Using the above techniques for accounts helps in the case of compromised databases; they don't get an email address that can be re-used anywhere else as a key in authenticating your account somewhere else. (I still strongly recommend you use a password manager such as BitWarden and use a strong, unique password for every account.)

ApacheStache

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Re: Email spam-how to stop it
« Reply #4 on: December 05, 2019, 06:12:51 PM »
The only effective way to stop spam is to switch to Gmail.

I have an outlook (formerly hotmail) account that is bombarded with spam. The most obvious, blatant, dumb spam you can think of.  Microsoft seems to be incapable or doesn't care about this spam at all.  I've given up on Microsoft to give decent spam protection for their free email accounts.

Gmail is by far the industry leader in blocking spam.  I would switch 100% to Gmail but I keep my old outlook account around for use because of its built in history. But it's inexcusable how bad Microsoft is on spam for its consumer email services.

+1. As a software engineer working in the Email Analytics industry, Gmail is the most proactive Mailbox Provider focused on keeping junk out of your inbox. Also, feel free to make liberal use of the "Report Spam" and "Unsubscribe me from this mailing list" links at the bottom of the email. Believe it or not, those play a significant role in determining which email senders will have their emails land in an inbox.